TEAM RIDE REPORT, 8-29-10

WOW!
Whatta ride(s)!
Whatta great post-ride bash!
Whatta great place to hang out on a hot-n-fine late summer day!

This weekend's training ride was one for the books for several reasons: Becky's longest ride (in tougher-than-average conditions!), 1st time our New Best Friend From Chicago Mary rode w/ us, 1st time @ Our New Fav Place on The Lake, one of the hilliest loops ever.....all in all it was an All Time Show-Stopper!

We met early-ish for the advertised "hilly" 32 mile AM loop. Present were:
Coach Did and trophy wife Kirsten
Chris and Becky M
Team Scheidel x 3
Bad Brad S
Tardy John J
Host w/the most Paul
Nicole
Scott P
Chuck B
The aforementioned N.B.F. Mary (on her 1st tandem ride ever)
and me....piloting said tandem.

The route was awesome - and as hilly as advertised. The water stop was much-appreciated and we got back to the cottage just in time to feast on both lotsa Subway (good training for DV!) and the hoots and shouts of arriving teammies.
The potential disadvantage of the 2-ride concept was readily apparant as we tried to pry happy butts offa comfy deck chairs and back in the saddle. Actually - I thought we did pretty dang good to roll only 20 minutes late! The "rolling" 40-ish mile PM ride was a biggie......check it:
Everyone from Ride #1 'cept Chuck, Brad and Chris +
Steve and Katie C
The lovely Linda - claiming her rightful place on the back o' the tandem so Mary was on her brand new bike for the 2nd time ever!
Nathan and Stewart
Brenda B
Mel W
Amy F2
Rob A (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Chris R
Linda T-P (who's responsible for our newest Team Rule - (s)he who lays out the loop must ride it!)
Kevin O
Mike H

By now it was hot. Damn hot to be precise. It'd be accurate to say that some folks were feelin' it and we made a few "game-day" calls w/ short-cuts and such but everyone got back and the cook-out/stuff-yer-BikeFace/swim/float/drift/eat too much desert fest commenced for real!

Massive, monsterous World's Greatest Team Kudos gotta be sent out to our incredible hosts! Paul and Kami (geez - I never even got their last name!) are neighbors of the T-Ps and have 2 kids w/ Type 1 so they've been JDRFolk for a while. They bent over backwards to welcome us to their little slice o' heaven there on Barlow Lake and we owe them BIG!

So - there you have it. A great ride and plenty of BikeFace in evidence allll day. Thanks to Linda and Scott for takin' point and for everyone that made a point of joining us.

Next Team Ride is this weekend - 9/5 @ Cindy Aley's up in Sand Lake. I'd say the odds of not ridin' up Fisk Knob are low at best! I'll be outta town but rest assured that I'll be missing you guys!

Watch for an e-mail later this week w/ details and if you haven't heard from someone on the Ride Committee by lunchtime Friday contact Coach Derek.

Be sure to keep an eye on the Team Blog (yep - that's this right 'chere!) and that e-mail I sent out last week w / the brand new ride schedule 'cuz there are lotsa chances comin' your way to ride w/your buds. Also - the MapleLeaf Metric, Harvest Tour, Apple Cider Century and Colorburst Tour are all 'tween now and DV as well! Let's get together and ride!

As I write this we are 2 Rides into the best season ever for JDRF. In 8 days we leave for Tahoe for Ride #3 and there are only 42 days before we leave for Death Valley! (And then only another 6 weeks 'til Tucson!) (Tuscon?) Let's keep it in the big ring huh? Riding, recruiting, fund-raising.............let's make sure that our Team remains the role model for the whole dang Ride Program!

One of my fav songwriters (Greg Brown) has this lyric in one of his tunes - " I know I say that all the time like everything else I say" and it fights really well right here: You. Guys. Rock. I'm so proud to roll w/ you all.............let's keep kickin' diabetes in the junk everytime we can, okay?

O-KAY!

See you on the road, be safe, ride lots, take care of each other................
Coach MC

Weekends of the Past and the Future

This past weekend was, like, 103% bicycle related. Possibly more.

Saturday dawned - wait, no, it was well before dawn when things got going on Saturday.

Saturday started with a few of us gathering at Meinert County Park for the first JDRF incarnation of the One Day Ride Across Michigan. We had about 70 people registered, and between no-shows and day-of registrations, I think we had about that many people actually ride. Comments were overwhelmingly positive - the worst gripe we had was that there were no forks at the finish area cookout. So, count on this becoming a regular thing on the annual JDRF ridin' calendar. It was way cool to see, feel, and generally be around - gotta hook up and ride it next year!

JDRF folks who rode the 147 mile long event were Dawn A., Cindy A., Herb B., and (big shock here) Kaat and MC.

Mad props, y'all!

Some time around 7:30 in the morning, MC, Kaat, and FOMs* Maria and Jan re-mounted bikes and headed back westwards, in the aptly-named MARDO (Mad-A$$ Ride Do-Over) ride. Now, in case that's not quite sinking in, they rode from Lake Michigan to Saginaw Bay on Saturday, and from Saginaw Bay back to Lake Michigan on Sunday. That's pretty close to 300 miles in two days.

Somewhat later Sunday morning, Amy F-F, Stewart, Nathen, Nathen's Dad, my Mom, Kirsten, and I met and rolled northwards for the MOST tour. The MOST is nice and scenic, with some good climbs up some good hills to get some nice views of said scenery. It's all good, y'know?

Sunday afternoon, I managed to meet our MARDOers as they rolled their last 10 miles, 'cause, y'know, someone had to take their picture, right? I'm pleased to report an abundance of Bike Face in that crew, as you can see:

In fact, the whole weekend was Bike Face time.

Now, for the future!

We have a team ride this coming Sunday, August 29, that promises to be another one of those truly memorable events. Linda and Scott (Poeder twin powers ACTIVATE!) (I dunno why that just popped in to my head, but, y'know, my head's a strange place sometimes) will be hosting, not from their house, but from a family cottage in the Gun Lake/Yankee Springs area.

We're going to do the same trick we tried for the last ride, route- and time-wise. We'll start with a harder, shorter loop (which Linda promises will be positively goatish with hills); times aren't yet written in stone but plan on a 9 am rollout. We'll then return to the start point, eat a bit, regroup, gather up some more folks, and re-start for a longer but less hilly loop. If you want to join in for the second loop, figure on an 11:30 am NOON rollout.

Post-ride, we've got a lake to play in. Kayaks? Yep. Floating bouncy house thing? You betcha. Food? Well, our hosts will be doing hot dogs and burgers, so bring any sort of picnicky goodies to share. If you've got kids who'll be doing water stuff, bring lifejackets for them. Someone will be around to keep an eye on reasonably self-sufficient kids will we're riding; extra adults are welcome, too.

This has gone on long enough, so watch your email - we'll have a map to our start location, confirmation of times and distances, and whatever else seems relevant. Since this has more going on, we'd really like to get an RSVP, too, so think about who's coming and when.

Gonna be a great day, hope to see ya there!

did

*Friends of Mike!

Ride Report, Ride Schedule, Ride, Ride, Ride!

A total of 11 committed ped’lers made the looong and arduous journey up to Whitehall last Saturday for 31 hilly miles or 41 flat (really!) miles. On the hilly route, we had a trio of Scheidels, JD, Nicole, SGS&ACTW Kirsten, SGS&AC’s Mom Ginger, and yours truly. I’m pleased to report that we all pretty much stayed together, and everyone in the group did all the hills despite being offered opportunities to cut ‘em off. Extra hardcore points all around!

We all rolled back to our cars, noshed a bit, then some of the folks headed out for family activities while we picked up some new riders. 5 of us rolled for 41 miles: Me, Kirsten, Chris R (who had apparently chased us for about 12 miles of the first loop), once-and-future-rider-and-always-on-the-team Jack C., and (making his team ride debut, and doing so most excellently) Randy D.

Let me note that the only person (other than me) to do the whole 72ish mile shebang was My Trophy Wife Kirsten. Yep, she’s that awesome.

Anyway, the idea of split starts for rides has kinda taken hold here in the coaching pavilion, so I think we’ll be trying that again at future team rides. AND, MC and I have done some revisioning of the team ride schedule for the rest of the year, so, here ya go:

8/21 – ODRAM!

8/22 – MOST Ride (tour opportunity)

8/29 – Team Ride hosted by the Poeders in the Gun Lake area

9/5 – Team Ride hosted by Cindy A. in the Cedar Springs area

9/11 – Maple Leaf Metric (tour opportunity)

9/18 – Team Ride from the Walk in Downtown GR!

9/19 – Leelanau Harvest Tour (tour opportunity)

9/25 – Team Ride from Ada Park

9/26 – Apple Cider Century (another tour, assuming it’s not full!)

10/2 – Team Ride from… somewhere!

10/9 – Colorburst Tour, GR Area (if we still have bikes!)

As always, we’ll have more information to ya as we get closer to the various events. ODRAM starts from Meinert County Park just North of Montague at 6am this Saturday; you’ve got cool teammates riding and working the event!

The MOST tour is a very scenic and pretty dang hilly 75 miler, starting from Oehrli Elementary School in Montague. Looks like there’s a fair group o’ folks riding, so, again, good company! There are 50 and 25 mile options as well; those are progressively less hilly.

Sorta the point we’re making here is that we’re about 8 weeks out from ride day – now’s the time to hit a few really good long rides, and we want to make sure you have opportunities to do so!

My apologies if this is kinda disjointed; it’s been a day, y’know? Anyway, you get the picture. You guys rock! See a bunch of you this weekend, and a bunch more next weekend!

A CORRECTION AND AN APOLOGY

Okay - there's a lesson in here somewheres....I just know it!

As I was tryin' to post updates from La Crosse each night I was b-a-r-e-l-y hangin' onto what passes for conciousness for me these days - the combination of gettin' up @ 6am, bustin' ass all day switching from "Bike Room Hat" to "Head Coach Hat" and callin' it a day around midnight was catchin' up w/ me. Still - that is no excuse for leavin' an important name off that list of past-n-present members of the Ride Committee and despite my fears - I did just exactly that.

And not just any name. Oh no! When I screw up I don't mess around! I go BIG! In this case I missed the name of not only a key member of the Committee for years, but a rider that's been w/ the Team since day freakin' one, a key player @ the office both as volunteer and staffer, a solid rider, a steadfast believer in the cause and the only member of the Team (thus far anyways) to have both married and birthed a fellow member of our Squad.

Fellow team mates, dear friends, partners in the cause and best buds......I humbly give you:

Mary Schiedel! 4 time DV rider! Killington survivor! A veteran of the sandstorms and heat and sun and rain and miles and smiles and tears and fears and joy and...yes....Bike Face that this Team and Program are all about.

She has my abject apologies and assuming that she ever speaks to me again I'll be tellin' that to her face.

Dang dang dang!

I'll do better next time. I promise.

Coach Careless

The secret to getting to the top of Jubilee Pass

Thanks to "In the Bleachers" by Steve Moore.

La Crosse Ride Day!

Up @ 4:30, breakfast 2 5:00, Bike Rooom to distribute bikes, pump tires, fill bottles, kit up. Down @ the edge of the Mississippi for the anthem, the take-off. Over the bridge into Minnesota. Good roads as we travel south along the river. Break Point #1 @ 15 miles, with a small group that's riding okay. Move some coaches around and realize I have no one to ride with. Catch a lift for a sag up to a group. Break Point #2, still overcast, nice temps (80-ish) and moderate humidity. Hawks, frogs, tons of dragonflys but no sign of darting turtles. Breakpoint #3 is in Lansing (!!) Iowa, during "Fish Days" no less. Oh the humanity! Hoook up w/ fav coach Terri from Minn and take a group up the big climb ( about 40% 0f Jubilee). Sun comes out, temp goes up as do we. Water stop @ the top and I lose Laura to the med car (briefly). Big downhill back to BP #3 where I meet Scott, who I'll ride w/the rest of the day. Back to 2, where Laura gets in J2's sag (she rejoined us @ #3 after getting her color back). Scott and I press on - at the end but w/ 5 riders behind me. Back through Minn, there's the bridge back to Wis. Ride back almost to the finish w/ Scott, turn him lose and back to the next group. Do that 2 times and.......we're done! 240 some riders in safe, sound and smiling. $600K + raised! Quick ditch kit in the BIke Room and throw Team Tee and shorts over sweaty skin. Dinner in the big tent alonside the river. Tell them about "bikeface" from Patti B, give out Spirit (another post in itself - remind me) and Best Youbg Rider jerseys. Eat too much brisket and pie. Hang around and back in the doneness and success. Bike Room - then the bar, then a pizza w/ J2 then here to crash but not before telling y'all at least this much.

Thanks for reading, for riding, for caring, for being who you are.

Hugs - Coach Mike

LA CROSSE, DAY TRES

Long day, good day. Too tired to report now. Tomorrow hopefully. Sorry!

MC

Behold the power of...

Just in case you're not on Facebook - some things just can not be missed:

CHEESEHEAD CENTRAL RIDE - DAY DOS

Man - Mr's Clark's favorite son is beat! Long day - up @ 6am, unloading the truck by 7:30, Bike Room work pretty much all dang day, interspersed w/ Coach Stuff, planning for the Lake Tahoe Ride (!!!) and such. Not it's 10-fiddy here-time and there are cyber-miles to go ere I sleep.

240 riders here, plus the crew, the staff, the volunteers......all gathered here on the muggy hot banks of the Mighty Miss-a-sip to take another crack @ giving ol' Type 1 a swift kick in the junk. I met New Team Guy Justine, talked w/ Back w/ Us and West Mi Riders Forever Mike and Jamie Colgan (I believe the exact quote from Mike was " There could be a local chapter next door - we're members of the West Mi team forever") and broke bread w/ Kevin O. I also met Alan - the first ever rider to represent the Metro Detroit Chapter! Met staffer Lauren too, a real go-getter that is all about doing the Program on their end of the state. Can't help thinkin' that's a good thing.

What a blast! Hugs and familiar faces, new bikes and old ones, Barry and his weird-ass saddle, John and his funny accent, crew guys I've only ever known in this context.......the whole giant enchilada. Damn - I love it and still can't believe they let me do this!

Tomorrow I'm gonna ride early w/ Mike M and Bill Marshall, then the coach's meeting @ breakfast, the rider's meeting, the tune up ride, the other meetings they have me doing, dinner, presentations......it'll be a full on sorta day to be sure.

And then.......on Saturday.....we ride.

We ride for all the reasons ya'll know all too well.

For people we love.

For folks we've not yet met.

For ourselves and 240 other utterly valid reasons.

I get all goose-bumpy just thinkin' about it!

I'll check in w/ you guys tomorrow - there oughta be tons of pics on the Ride FB page tomorrow too!

Good night from La Crosse my friends.

MC

La Crosse Ride - Day 1

I did such a lousy job of keepin' y'all posted when I was in VT last month that here I am - with not all that much to say....still, I promised my-own-self that I'd do a far better job this time 'round so.......here I am!

Jeremy, John J and I (w/ help from The Hellkaat) loaded up the truck this morning about 8:30 and headed west, bound for LaCrosse Wi and Ride to Cure #2. W/ my compadre Tim St Clair suddenly unavailable I go t"promoted" to Head Coach Guy for the weeked so J2 kindly offered to fill my flip-flops in the Bike Room w/ Berger. Given that we have 240 riders headin' this-a-way I lined up Noel Kegel (of the legendary Wheel and Sprocket Kegels) to meet us here as well. The Bike Room oughta be fine.

Hotter n' Hell here....92 when we pulled in @ 5:30pm. Tomorrow we set up the Bike Room and start settin' up bikes. I need to find time to drive the route and then there'll be that welcome dinner and all that and the whole dang shebang revs up again!

Whew!

I'll drop y'all a line fillin' ya in on the proceedings as they unfold. Stay tuned!

By the way - once again as I hang w/ JDRF Nat'l types I'm struck by the level of esteem w/ which our team is held in the General JDRF Universe. Sure is easy to be proud of bein' a member of our team! I wanted to take a sec to call out the members of the Ride Committee 'cuz they've been bustin' their butts for years now and all-too-often covering mine lately!

Anyway - I wanna thank 'em and when you run across 'em @ the next ride or whatever you might wanna too!

Long time Committee guy and now Co-Coach Derek "Did" Dykstra
Current Committee Leader and past Coach Nicole Nelles
Long time Committee Leader and web-whiz Katie Clark
Long time Committee Member and Van Andel architect Cindy Aley
New this year Committee Member and $ guy Tom Miller
New this year and legal eagle JD Stone.

I'd be remiss-as-all-get-out to not call out past members John Jasker, Rob Andro & Sarah Andro as well!

Sigh - It's late, been a long day and it occurs to me that I'm virtually guaranteed to forget a name or 2. I'll fix it later.

So - keep riding, keep rising $, keep hangin' w/each other, krp caring, keep being the extra-exceptional folks you are!

See you soon.............Coach Mike

Team Ride Approacheth yet again

HiHo, did the coach here, quietly melting in the 400% humidity and thinking wistfully of the nice dry desert air... aaaaah, dry heat. So nice. Barely two months away...

Anyway, gotta keep riding, eh? So, Team Ride this Sunday, August 15! Sadly, we'll be minus Coach MC, as he'll be rolling home from the LaCrosse, Wisconsin ride - but then again, he's going to a JDRF Ride Event so my sympathy is somewhat limited.

On that note, hey, our bus driver extraordinaire Kevin Owens will be over there, as will Justin Barnaby from Ithaca, MI and our suburban Chicago father-and-daughter teammates Mike and Jamie Colgan. Someday, we will all meet the Justin and Colgans; until then, hey, they're part of the greater Us and so... propel them with your thoughts on Saturday!

So, how 'bout all y'all come riding up my way this time? How 'bout we ride from Lions Park (mappity map: http://tinyurl.com/LionsParkWhitehall) in Whitehall? We ain't never done that before! How 'bout we plan on... well, hold on a sec, here. New concept in team rides!

I have two loops. One loop is a bit shy of 41 miles, and goes South of Whitehall in to North Muskegon. It's basically flat, and pretty scenic. You'll see Lake Mich-e-coli up close.

Loop two is a bit shy of 31 miles, goes North up to New Era, and is... rolling. Now, none of the big hills are as vicious as the ones I subjected my wife too last Friday (I was the recipient of some emphatic non-verbal communication after those), and in fact are very reminiscent of Jubilee Pass in terms of grade, if not length. They're good training. Really.

So, how 'bout this: if you want to hit the hilly route, be at the start at 9:45 so we can roll out at 10 am. Note that due to this route being basically out-and-back, you could cut off some of the hills quite easily.

If you not feeling like you wanna bust an up, or if the early start doesn't work for ya, be at the start at 12:15 and we'll shoot for a 12:30 pm rollout for the 40-something Beach Route.

The two combined will be about 71.5 miles of really nice riding.

And then we'll sit around and do some noshing - not gonna grill or anything, but feel free to bring some of the usual snacks and stuff.

Clear as mud? Smart as a rock? Tight as a... not very tight thing? Contact me if you've got questions; my info will be in your email, if you don't have it already...

**********************************

NOTE CHANGED RIDE START POINT!!!!!

Goodrich Park is the site of the White Lake Maritime Festival - they'll be cleaning up from that Sunday morning, so we'll start the ride from a park basically across the street from there. Once we're done riding, Goodrich Park should be available so we can all go over there and play on the playground equipment.

ANYONE WANNA RIDE TOMORROW?????

So - as you might be aware - we're throwing a big all day ride here @ the shop on Sunday. On the off-chance that the idea of a 200 mile ride is less than compelling I wanted y'all to know that there will be several shorter options.

Here's the scoop:

We're rolling @ 6:40am (approx, 'cuz everything about a Shut Up & Ride Club ride is "approx") to do a loop of the Holland Hundred from 2006. That'll be a somewhat different route than this year's to allevate boredom, plus we'll probably go backwards as well. So you could join us for that..or a portion thereof.

We'll be rollin' back to (or at least near) the shop sometime in the early afternoon.....hard to say exactly when 'natch....and then we're heading up to G.H. so you could climb aboard the train for that chunk as well. After we get back from G.H. (Nope - no hill repeats!) we;ll see how many miles we need and probably head out N.E. of Zeeland.

Feel free to gimme a call as we roll through the day to see when/where you might could hook up w/ us. 616-610-0334

Whether I have the pleasure of your company tomorow or not - you guys re-define "rocking" and as I head out to don my Head Coach Cap @ the LaCrosse Ride next week I promise to never forget that first, foremost and forever I'm a proud member of the West Michigan JDRF Ride Team. Y'all have a great, safe and fun training ride next Sunday - I hate like hell to miss it! - and I'll try and regale you w/ tales of Cheeseheads and all things Wisconsin-ish!

Ride on you rockstars!

Coach Mike

Wine Wednesday: Unofficial Ride Report

Last night's gathering, while not on the 'official' ride calendar, might rank up there as one of the best rides yet (If you don't believe me, go to my Facebook page and see the comments on the photos).

15 of us gathered after the ODRAM (have you registered yet?) committee meeting at Tom and Mary's house. Now...It's my understanding that Wine Wednesday (WW) started out as a little neighborhood thingy with Tom & Mary and the people on their street, then us JDRF peeps started coming too (No neighborhood people came last night. I wonder if we've scared them off?). Well, we're sure happy they invited us...15 people, 19ish miles, 40-45 mph max speeds on 7 Mile hill, lots of wine and ridiculously yummy goodies on the patio afterward. Bliss.

My favorite part was when we were chatting through our 'agenda' for the weekend in DV coming up...from the 'necessities' stop in Pahrump to when pool time happens to the date grove dinners to the warm up ride to anticipation of seeing MC in those plaid bibs to a retelling of the time I spewed mojito all over Tom & Mary... HOW many days till we get to leave?

Thanks Tom and Mary for having us. And sorry if we've scared off the neighbors.

Linda T-P

Amy F-F

Our lovely hosts Tom, Mary and Ian (no wine for you, mister)

Coach Did

Stewart

Nathen

Cindy

Chris R.

Mel

Sarah

Tom

Jeff

me

Adding some color to the blog

RIDE REPORT FOR 8/1/10

Y'know - I kinda don't wanna post this in a way......here in BlogVille the latest post always gets top billing and I sorta hate to push Did's uber-eloquent prose down the page. (If you wanna go read it again right now it's cool - I'll wait)

However - as we all know, life (and this Team), rolls on so on Sunday we gathered down @ Teresa and Mike Howard's in Wayland to do just exactly that!

In attendance were:

Coach Did and Ultra-Special-Guest Kirsten
Cindy and Steady-Special-Guest Greg
Tom, Mary and Ian
Becky and Chris
Linda and Scott
Tom M
JD
J2 (ask him about his new dance!)
Chris R
Mike H
Queen Linda
Steve (where's my water bottle?)
Walt (aka Mr Goldfish Crackers)
Brand-New-Special-Guest Penny
and...umm.....oh yeah, me.

So - off we went, bound for points south. 'Twas an ambitious bunch w/ 90.047% of the group opting for the longer 52 mile loop while Mike H and Linda C volunteered to cut it short to get the grill ready. (Way to take one for the Team guys!)
Misdirection reared it's ugly head fairly quickly for the lead group. We chose to venture off-route and add on 5-6 miles to avoid some fresh chip-seal (this is where Did chimes in w/ "kill it with fire!!!") and to hit a Shellmart 'cuz LPT was outta peach ring gummy candy stuff to adorn her bike with. Shortly thereafter we "missed" a turn, (okay - it was gravel but still.....we missed it) and found ourselves adrift in the wilderness. Correcting that oops required a furious chase of the leaders by yours truly but 'twas soon all good and onward we went. (By the way - if Did or Cindy try to sell ya a bill of goods by claiming to be in possession of a certain voice mail from me - it's a scam!)

Careful modification of the route allowed us to not only get back to Howards w/ the correct mileage (well - most of us) but also led to a regrouping of the 2 groups for the final 8 miles or so.

Nifty, eh?

Post-ride fellowship was observed breaking out almost immediately over hot dogs, mouthwash-promoting fresh salsa, various salads, many cupcakes ("mini" too!), pies and a B-Day cake for Greg. The less said about our rendition of Happy Birthday the better I fear.

And I'm still not sure if I'm bummed or relieved that Did spared that watermelon!

Seriously - this was just exactly the perfect way to close what has been a challenging and emotional week for many of us and I thank you all for that. Those of you that showed up Sat morning for the memorial - I thank you for that as well. I know for a fact that it meant the world to Stacey @ that time of imeasurable pain.

From the heart I say again - you guys rock.

So - the next Team Ride is on 8/15. It will be hosted by none other than Coach Derek and his team of eves waaaaaaaaaay up north inMontague and is not to be missed! Alas - I might be doing just that, since Berger, DeputyBikeRoomDude J2 and I will be comin' back from the Wisconsin Ride but we'll see.

Watch your inbox for an e-mail in the coming week or so w/ all the details.

So - we are less than 2 weeks from Wisconsin and less than 10 weeks from Death Valley! How are you doing? Fund Raising on track? Letters out? Feeling good on the bike? Got'cher hydration and nutrition working? If so - GREAT! If not - let us know, okay? Coach Derek and I are always right here to help w/ any bike or fitness related issues and the entire Ride Commitee stands poised to help w/ anything else.

Also - this here TeamBlogThingy is for all of us to use - to share rides, jokes, salsa recipes - to ask questions - to share stories or tall tales that might embarrass J2 - to talk to one another about way we're doing this Grand Thing and what it means to us. I'd r-e-a-l-l-y like to see a bit more activity so if you've been holding back............and you have something you'd like to share w/ the rest of the class - speak up! If you need to get set up to post here contact Katie Clark and she'll do her thing on the keyboard and.........voila! Off you go into the Blog-o-Sphere. (Your teen aged kids will be amazed!)

I for one would like to hear what'cha have to say.

Okay - enough for a Monday morn methinks. Keep up the Good Work, keep doin' what'cher doin', keep on keepin' on.

I pretty much love you guys y'know.

And am proud to be a memebr of this team.

See you soon, be safe!

Coach MC